#Elections2019: ANC clinches KZN despite 10% loss of support

Durban – The ANC has – as polling predicted – won KwaZulu-Natal, taking home just over 54% of the votes in the province.

But despite the win, the party has lost considerable ground in the province, dropping more than 10% as compared to their majority win of 64.52% in the 2014 elections.

The IFP will also be proud of its efforts in KZN as it became the official opposition scoring just over 585 000 votes, unseating the DA as the second biggest party in the province.

The DA came a close third, with just over 490 000 votes, while the EFF came fourth with just under 350 000 votes.

IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi arriving in KwaMashu to address his party ‘s gathering just before the elections. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo/African News Agency(ANA)

The NFP came fifth, with just over 55 000 votes – which is likely to give the party just over two seats in the KZN Legislature.

The NFP, the numbers suggest, was the big loser in this election. The party dropped by over 7% from the 2014 election, losing more than 220 000 votes, potentially to the rampant IFP.

The big winner in KZN was undoubtedly the EFF which saw its support more than grow five times from 2014, after seeing its votes grow from 70 823 to just under 350 000. The EFF now claims 9.71% of the KZN vote, a massive increase from 1.85% in 2014.

The Freedom Front Plus may have made significant gains in the national elections, but in KZN their gains were just over 3 300 votes, from just under 7700 in 2014 to just under 11 000 in 2019.

The 2019 election also gave the party of the late Amichand Rajbansi a hammer blow after his wife, Shameen Takur-Rajbansi, who has led the party since his death in 2011 only managed to garner just under 19 000 votes. This figure is down from the 38 960 votes it secured in 2014 and significantly lower than the 86 770 the party scored in 1999 when it got 2.73% of the provincial vote.

Voter turn-out in KZN was 65.9 % in 2019 compared to five years ago when 75.93% of registered voters went to the ballot box.

This year, of the 5 524 66 registered voters in KZN, only 2 363 646 voted.

While the ANC may have won the province, party bosses should be concerned that it support has dropped, by just under half a million votes.

During former president Jacob Zuma’s years in charge of the party, the ANC managed to get 62.95% of the vote in KZN in 2009 and 64.52% in 2014. In 2019, the ANC bucked its growth pattern, and claimed just over 54% of the KZN vote.